VA to create a "burn pit" registry
President Obama signed legislation Thursday requiring the Veterans Affairs Department to establish a registry for troops and veterans who lived and worked near open-air burn pits used to dispose waste in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas.
In addition to including new requirements for providing a casket or urn for veterans with no known next of kin and establishing care for a military cemetery in the Philippines, the Dignified Burial and Other Veterans Benefits Improvement Act, S. 3202, aims to pinpoint the number of veterans who may have been exposed to burn-pit smoke so VA can track their medical histories and keep them apprised of new treatments for associated conditions.
Troops deployed in support of contingency operations and stationed at a location where an open burn pit was used will be eligible to register.
Veterans advocacy groups and families of service members who have become ill since their deployments hailed passage of the law as a “victory.”
“It validates the truth behind every death, every illness associated with exposure,” said Rosie Lopez-Torres, co-founder of Burn Pits 360 and wife of former Army Capt. LeRoy Torres, who developed a rare lung disorder known as constrictive bronchiolitis after serving in Iraq.
This comes on the heals of a 2011 study where the DoD said that they found the science wasn't settled:
The long-term health effects of exposure to military burn pits used for trash disposal are still uncertain, according to a new study commissioned by the Defense Department.
The Institute of Medicine says "insufficient data" on service members' exposures to open-air pit emissions is one reason the results were inconclusive. High background levels of pollution in the surrounding area, along with a lack of information about the amount and makeup of the waste burned, also made it difficult to analyze the data.
The emissions have been the source of controversy as troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have blamed health problems such as cancerous tumors and respiratory issues on exposure to burn pit emissions.
I've been fairly skeptical of that study for a while now, and it appears Congress and the President were as well. I have a close friend who had to leave the military at 19 years because of Sarcoidosis, which is a lung impairment. He's always maintained it was from stuff we were breathing in while stationed in Bosnia, and while I am not a doctor (medical anyway) that always struck me as the most likely culprit.
I'll have more on how to register when the VA sets up the website.